Cartons are often used to ship a variety of consumer products. The products may be unloaded from the carton at the destination or point of sale and placed on vending racks, shelves, or other displays. The emptied carton then may be reused for shipping other products, recycled, or otherwise disposed of. In order to reduce costs, such as those associated with unloading cartons and displaying the products unloaded therefrom, cartons have been developed that may function not only for shipping, but also as displays at the point of sale. The carton may have colorful graphics or other images advertising the product, and may include one or more doors or openings for providing access to the product therein.
Cartons are typically formed from blanks cut from paperboard, corrugated board, or other material. The blanks, generally planar, unfolded cartons may be assembled into cartons either manually or using automated equipment. The formed cartons may also be loaded with products either manually or using automated equipment. Manual assembly and loading of cartons is time-consuming and can be costly as compared to the use of automated equipment. However, automated equipment can require a large investment. Thus, it is desirable for automated equipment to be versatile and able to form and/or load a variety of different carton types and configurations.
Providing doors with side panels or portions extending between the doors and the cartons may improve the appearance and functioning of the door. For example, a door may be provided having side panels adapted for limiting the opening of the door relative to the carton and/or reducing spillage of product. However, providing door side panels can complicate the assembly of the carton, and may require expensive customization of automated equipment for assembling such cartons. Thus, it is desirable to provide for the automated assembly of cartons having doors with side panels.
Furthermore, door side panels may interfere with the loading of product into the interior of the carton. When loaded manually, care may be taken to reduce interference between the door side panels and the product. As discussed above, however, manual loading of cartons can be costly compared to the use of automated equipment. In addition, side panels of doors may interfere with the opening and closing of the doors when the carton is loaded with product. For example, product may interfere with the movement of the door side panels from open to closed positions. Thus, it is desirable to provide cartons having doors with side panels that are configured to reduce or eliminate interference between the door side panels and the product.